North metro town briefs: Golden Valley chorus seeks new singers

You're invited to a Civil War lecture series sponsored by the Anoka County Historical Society starting in September. Most of the free lectures will be held at the Anoka County History Center, 2135 3rd Av. N., Anoka. For more information, call 763-421-0600 or go to anokacountyhistory.org.

The schedule includes:

• "Soldiers Aid Society," 7 p.m. Sept. 5.

• A tour of Oakwood, Anoka's oldest cemetery, 2 p.m. Oct. 5.

• "The Gettysburg Address," 7 p.m. Nov. 7.

"Ghosts of Anoka" tours will be offered at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday in September and October.

Registration at the Anoka County History Center is required. Call 763-421-0600 or go to anokacountyhistory.org. Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for Historical Society members and $5 for children.

New members are invited to come to any rehearsal. Female tenors are welcome.

The chorus sings old favorites, show tunes and some newer pop tunes. They perform about twice a month for senior residences, community centers, church groups, care centers and community events. For more information, call 612-250-1417.

Johannes "Jan" Koomen, clinical administrator at Johanna Shores senior living community in Arden Hills, has been named the 2013 Outstanding Nurse in Long Term Care by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.

The Stick It to Cancer Women's Hockey Tournament held at Blaine's National Sports Center in April raised more than $88,000 to help combat breast cancer, organizers say. Proceeds will be donated to the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota.

This year's tournament featured a total of 97 girls' and women's hockey teams from around the Midwest. Most of the teams were from Minnesota, but North Dakota, Ontario, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin also were represented.

The city's rating is the second highest issued by the agency.

Standard & Poor's said its rating reflects its analysts' view that Ramsey has moderate debt levels, very strong financial reserves and income, and strong property market value per capita.

"Offsetting these strengths," said the agency's report, "is the city's declining assessed [property] valuation in recent fiscal years, although this is slightly mitigated by tax increment financing projects expiring and coming back onto the tax roll."

The Brooklyn Center Community Center pool, exercise room, sauna and water slide will be closed Sept. 2-8 for annual maintenance. City offices will be closed Labor Day, but open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday.